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Spurred by the success of Nintendo’s “Wii Fit,” video games are suddenly more and more about fitness.

“Wii Fit,” a video game that acts as a virtual exercise coach, guides players through yoga moves, basic strength training and aerobics. Since its release about a year ago, “Wii Fit” has sold more than 6 million copies in the US.

Nintendo’s success has attracted the attention not only of its competitors (a slew of next-generation fitness-themed games such as “EA Sports Active” are on store shelves in Jakarta and other major cities) but also health professionals.

Such institutions as the University of Mississippi and Indiana University have started looking into whether interactive video games are viable tools to promote health and combat obesity or just another fitness fad.

“Your body doesn’t care if you’re going out on the street riding a bicycle or pedaling in front of a Wii screen,” says Lew Lyon, vice president of MedStar Sports Health at Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore and a sports psychologist.

Fewer than 40 percent of Americans are getting enough exercise, he points out. “If we can get 10 percent more active (with video games) that’s a good thing.”

Fitness-themed games can be useful even for avid exercisers. They offer variety and the convenience of working out in your living room.

If it weren’t for her Wii, Allyson Lestner, who lives in Towson, Maryland, and ran a half-marathon in November, probably wouldn’t be in as good shape as she is now.

After the race, she says, “I got burned out from running. I had a ‘Wii Fit’ and started using it more seriously.”

When Lestner, 30, works out with the online skating program, for instance, she’s actually doing strength training.

“The lower you go, the faster you go on the screen,” she says. “You’re doing squats and you don’t realize it.”

The variety of minigames within the system helps keep Lestner and others interested. But because interactive fitness games are relatively new, research is scarce about their staying power. Once the novelty wears off, will the “Wii Fit” balance board end up in the back of the closet?

Pilot studies suggest there are things that can be done to help people stick with the routines, such as using multiplayer games, says Elizabeth Lyons, a doctoral candidate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Lyons was one of the speakers at the annual Games for Health conference in June in Boston.

While the conference looked at the broader role of video games in health and health care, one of the five topics covered was exercise-themed games.

As for the criticism that interest could wane, Lyons doesn’t think fitness video games should be compared with other kinds of exercise in regards to staying power.

She suggests looking at what keeps people playing games. Novelty is important. If that’s true, it’s good there are so many choices.

Lyons sees fitness games as a way to lure kids and adults away from sitting in front of the TV and similar behavior.

People have plenty of excuses — she uses the more polite word “barriers” — for not exercising: They don’t have time. They have a poor body image and don’t want to work out around other, fitter people at the gym.

A fitness game could be the answer to all of those. And as more video-game developers roll out exercise-themed games, customers will have a range of options.

“Far more big players are jumping into the fray,” says Adam Sessler, host of “X-Play,” a cable TV show about video games.

Although some games are simply “Wii Fit” knockoffs, others are raising to a new level aerobic conditioning and strength training regimens that are actually fun.

Sessler sees the phenomenon partly as an attempt of the industry as a whole to expand the breadth of video gaming.

Released in May, “EA Sports Active” sought to distance itself from “Wii Fit” by promising a more high-impact, Western-style workout.

Not to be outdone, Nintendo announced plans last month for a sensor that would track a player’s pulse, to be used with the more strenuous “Wii Fit” sequel, “Wii Fit Plus.”

“It’s not about sitting in the dark with a console eating chips anymore,” Sessler says. The Baltimore Sun